The present invention relates, in general, to methods of restructuring meat, and, more particularly, to methods of restructuring fresh meat into uniform portions to be used for steak and roasting cuts.
The trend to produce increasing amounts of beef on less grain and more roughage is a reality that seems inevitable, and the current trend toward consumption of increasing amounts of fresh beef as hamburger is well documented. It has been reported that the American public spent 44 billion dollars in 1976 eating away from home. Hamburger, as a percent of total beef consumed in the United States, has increased from 36% to 43% since 1972. The need for a satisfactory fresh pork item analogous to hamburger has been repeatedly emphasized. Furthermore, the hotel-restaurant-institutional (HRI) and retail industries are both placing more pressure on meat packers and purveyors to provide them with portioned cuts of beef and pork that are uniform in size, shape, weight, density and have the desired sensory attributes including texture, tenderness, juiciness and flavor. In short, the HRI industry wants uniform size and quality so that a specific image for a product at a given cost for raw materials can be projected.
To satisfy the increased demand for meat while fulfilling the requirements imposed on meat production by the grain and roughage constraints, several processes have been developed. Among those processes is processing of beef into hamburger. While leaner, younger beef can be ground and processed into conventional hamburger items, these known processes do not provide the benefits to the beef industry of products that are similar to roast and steak cuts.
A recent innovation involves flake-cutting of meat and restructuring the resultant flaked meat into steak-like items, and flaked and formed steaks and chops have received some degree of acceptance; however, these items more closely resemble ground product than sectioned and formed steaks or chops.
Similar processes exist for restructuring of pork, lamb, mutton, veal, chicken and turkey into sausages, loaves and similar processed meat items. However, none of the processes embodying the teachings of the prior art adequately reproduce the desired textural properties of the respective fresh meat item. For example, the cured meat industry has produced a sectioned and formed ham by "salting out" the muscle proteins during processing to form a matrix which is subsequently stabilized by heating.
Tenderness is the textural property of meat that is most difficult to assess in the raw state and the most illusive and the most frequently cited as the reason for rejection in the cooked state. A method of producing a cut that is uniform in size, shape, density, fat content and sensory properties (particularly tenderness) is to be greatly desired.
The inventor is aware of prior art teaching processing of meat in which pieces or chunks of uncooked whole, unground meat are cured, subjected to a form of mechanical working to partially grind the meat so the pieces of meat become soft and pliable with a tacky exudate formed on the surfaces thereof. However, the tenderizing of such pieces of meat is not performed with a mechanical tenderizer, but is performed using chemicals, such as salt and phosphates, or the like, and, such chemical treatment is undesirable for many reasons. Such reasons include use by persons on salt-free diets is prohibited, production of "off-flavors," rancidity, and the like. The restructured meat produced by the presently disclosed process does not require the addition of salts, phosphates, or enzymes. Futhermore, the known processes require some aging of the meat to achieve desired flavor, texture, tenderness, and the like which has concommittant drawbacks to the meat processor. Such drawbacks are tieup of freezer space, high energy usage, and the like.
Contrasted to the known methods of tenderizing, the process embodying the teachings of the present invention tenderizes using mechanical means which permits extraction of muscle protein in addition to tenderizing the meat. Muscle protein thus extracted from the cells in the inventive process serves to bind the meat together.
The inventor is also aware of processes used to form food such as hot dogs and like sausage-type items, wherein the meat matrix is stabilized by heating. In contrast to such methods, the process embodying the present invention uses fresh meat which is not heated and which is held together by the muscle proteins extracted in the mechanical tenderizing step.
As the restructured meat produced by the inventive process uses unheated meat, the meat remains "fresh" as opposed to the meat being cured or the like which results from the known process which heat the meat. Furthermore, the "fresh" meat used in the inventive process produces a restructured product having a flavor which accurately and closely approaches an "ideal" flavor. Heretofore, restructured meats have suffered from the drawback of an "off-flavor." The use of fresh, unheated meat in the inventive process enables the restructured meat to be formed without the so-called "pre-cooking" related problem of "off-flavor." As the meat is never "cooked" during the inventive process, an "off-flavor" is never developed.
The inventor is also aware of prior art teaching various methods of tendering meat. However, none of these known methods mechanically tender the meat in a restructuring process, and therefore suffer the above-discussed drawbacks of "off-flavor" and the like.
The process embodying the teachings of the present invention produces a restructured meat product having uniform size, shape, density and fat content coupled with desired textural properties immediately after exsanguination. The inventive process uses meat which is processed immediately after exsanguination and thus as an additional advantage thereof, overcomes the just-mentioned drawbacks inherent in those known process requiring the use of aged meat to produce desired flavor, texture, and the like.